Birdy 2025 Arrives

I headed out to Wembury for a short walk on Tuesday 1st July but a late start meant I didn't arive there off the bus until 10:45am. It was not too busy though along my coast path walk which was surprising as it was a hot and sunny day. The tide was high and beginning to ebb and along the beach 2 Little Egret, 7 Mallard (6 males) and 7 Oystercatcher were seen. A Whimbrel and a second summer Mediterranean Gull were also present and hinting that while it may be July Autumn is already appearing on the horizon.

The hot weather brought out plenty of butterflies with an impressive 15 species seen. Ringlets were very noticeable, they seem to be having a good year this year, and Small Whites were also present in good numbers having presumably arrived recently from the Continent with many looking quite worn. Also seen were a Small Copper, a Wall Brown, a Green-veined White, a Painted Lady, a Peacock, a Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Large White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Small Skipper. 

Gatekeeper

There were good numbers of Sand-tailed Digger Wasps along the bone dry mud path, all busily buzzing around their nesting holes in the soil, and I was pleased to find my first Bee Wolf and Ferruginous Bee-Grabber of the year too.

Sand-tailed Digger Wasps (Cerceris arenaria or Weevil Wolf)

Ferruginous Bee Grabber - funky name, funky looking

I had to cancel a butterfly trip up to Aish Tor with Mavis on Wednesday 2nd July due to not feeling well but I did have a gentle walk around Mount Edgecumbe with David on Thursday 3rd July on what was another hot and sunny day. I didn't take my binoculars or camera with me which was a big mistake as I had some nice wildlife sightings including Silver-washed Fritillaries flitting about, 2 Hummingbird Hawkmoths feeding on flowers, an adult Mediterranean Gull flying down river and a Dark Giant Horsefly which was very large and quite ponderous in flight as it buzzed around people sat outside the cafe.

Dark Giant Horsefly - sat on my shoulder and taken with my phone

Birdy 2025 duly made his grand entrance into our living room grate on Monday 7th July and fortunately just as we were leaving the house to go for a gentle walk at Saltram. Noises were first heard in the chimney on Saturday 5th July with an increase in activity the following day. It was quieter on the Monday though until a lot of scrabbling, falling soot and then a loud thump was heard as he plopped down on to the grate flap. He was uninjured as we quickly got him out of the chimney with the help of a towel, he looked very cute and also bemused by his experience but was silent and quite docile. I quickly ran over to the nearby Tesco and bought some tinned Mackerel to feed him which he wolfed down before we placed him on the flat roof next door.

Birdy 2025

Mum quickly came down from the chimney stack to investigate, there was no aggression and she quickly regurgitated some food for him. Soon after Dad arrived and did the same and without any hint of aggression either so they appeared to have re-accepted him after his 2 day abscence from them. However this year he is one of two chicks and the second chick is still up on the chimney stack so we may have to go through all of this again, hopefully this one will avoid the chimney flue route altogether and jump down onto the flat roof himself as has happened in other years but we will have to wait and see.

Our slightly delayed walk around Saltram was enjoyable despite my still not feeling that great, there was not much going on as expected but there were 21 Curlew roosting on Blaxton Meadow as the tide headed in and it was nice to see a good number of juvenile Black-headed Gulls amongst the adults roosting there too.

Mandarin

I caught the bus out to Wembury again on Wednesday 9th July to meet up with my mate Mavis for a wildlife walk. It felt pleasantly warm on arriving off the bus at 9:45am, the skies were mostly sunny and there was a gentle breeze and we started things off by watching the activity around the Bee Wolf and Sand-tailed Digger Wasp burrows at the main beach.

Bee Wolf

Things soon started to warm up though as the cloud cleared and the breeze dropped and by the end of our walk it was feeling very hot indeed although a bit of sea mist did briefly roll in. The hot conditions did mean we had plenty of insect activity to keep us occupied though and we had an interesting walk.

We found 13 species of Butterfly on the wing - a Small Tortoiseshell, a Painted Lady, 2 Peacock, 2 Green-veined White and 4 Red Admiral along with Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Small White, Speckled Wood, Large White, Ringlet and Wall Brown.

Small Tortoiseshell

Wall Brown

A few 6-Spot Burnet were seen feeding on Thistle flowers but an interesting find was a Sitochroa palealis (or Carrot Seed Moth), a new moth for me.

Sitochroa palealis (or Carrot Seed Moth)

Sitochroa palealis (or Sulphur Pearl)

It was quiet on the bird front as expected but the 8 adult Mediterranean Gulls roosting out on the rocks on the dropping tide were still sporting their breeding plumage and we were very pleased to find a pair of Dartford Warbler with 2 juveniles flitting about at at The Point while worryingly a female Sparrowhawk was stealthily hunting nearby. There were also 2 noisy Green Woodpeckers in some dead trees around the upper horse field where 4 Ravens were feeding and the only other sighting of note was a Swift overhead at the bus stop while waiting to catch the bus back to Plymouth.